As We Stumble Along
by sanscomment
Summary: Everyone knows what happened to Harry in Deathly Hallows, but not much is known about the occurrences at Hogwarts. What really went down at Hogwarts while Harry was off Horcrux hunting? Alliances are tested, friendships broken, how will Hogwarts survive?


**TITLE:** As We Stumble Along

 **SUMMARY:** Everyone knows what happened to Harry in the Deathly Hallows, but not much is known about the occurrences at Hogwarts. What really happened at Hogwarts? Alliances are tested, friendships formed and broken. How exactly did Hogwarts survive?

 **DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Harry Potter.

 **WARNINGS:** Torture.

 **A/N:** So I'm back. I know that everyone has probably long forgotten about this story, but I decided it deserves a rewrite (since going back and reading the original makes me want to cringe a bit (I was 17 when I wrote it so…)). The rewrite is going to be quite a bit darker.

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He couldn't see. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't do much of anything as he sat on the chair in the middle of the room. How long he had been there was anyone's guess. The Cruciatus Curse easily drained him of all air and energy. Every breathe he managed burned his entire being. The lack of sight he could deal with (a simple blinding curse from Blaise Zabini kept him in the dark). It was the heightened sense of hearing that was driving him to a slow insanity.

Neville could hear her soft sobs. He remembered them securing her to the chair directly behind him, but when the blindness came, he lost focus on her. While he screamed, he thought of her, trying to be strong for her, but that wasn't in the cards. No matter how hard Neville Longbottom tried, he couldn't keep the screams of agony inside of him.

His eyes rolled back as pain wracked his tired body. The chair behind him was moving, constantly banging into his. 'Please stop,' he thought, hoping that greater power would hear his pleas and save her. This was something that he could take, but he didn't want her hurt anymore. She had been through enough.

Another curse came out of nowhere, and Neville choked back a scream. At this rate, his vocal cords would soon fail him. It was a strain to get the noise out and he felt absurdly drained. This was the worst detention yet. He struggled against the binding charm, his body wanting to contort in a sad attempt to absorb the pain.

"Please," he whimpered when the curse stopped. His own screams stopped in time to hear her begging for Theodore Nott to stop his torture. "Please stop."

It was only when he got a response that Neville realized that he said those words out loud. Blaise laughed and backhanded him, sending his chair tipping slightly to the side. "Getting tired already, Longbottom?"

She screamed, causing Neville's blood to boil. "Let her go!" His voice cracked with each word as he attempted to get his body to move and get free of the charm. "She didn't do anything, she doesn't deserve this." He refused to let his mind process what was probably happening to her. If he knew, it would only make his fury grow.

"She's a little wench," Theodore snapped. "Isn't that right."

She let out a broken sob that tore through Neville. "She's not a wench, you asshole," he snapped. "You're torturing her for no reason. Just because the Carrows gave you the power to torment and torture doesn't mean it's okay."

"Nev, I'm okay," she whispered, her voice heavy with fear and laced with pain.

Neville didn't believe her for one second. He could hear in her voice that she wasn't okay. But what could he do? As he went to open his mouth to speak once again, a curse hit him. It wasn't the Cruciatus Curse, but it was right up there. It felt like his insides were turning to acid. Everything felt as though it was melting away. Bile rose up his throat like lava rising in a volcano. He struggled to keep it down, but the burning liquid spewed out of him with a choking sob.

Despite the agony he went through, he kept his faith in Harry Potter.

While he did everything that he could to keep the spirits up at Hogwarts, Harry was doing the hard work. He was out there figuring out how to destroy Voldemort and return the wizarding (and muggle) world to peace. Neville was merely getting destroyed mentally and physically, hoping to keep some kind of rebellion going in Hogwarts.

This was probably going to kill him, but it would be a good way to die. If he had to die, he wanted to go out fighting. He wanted to be remembered as someone who faced some of the worst people in the world and died fighting for what he believed in. He knew that should one of the detentions kill him, all hell would break loose in Hogwarts, and maybe that was what the school needed. Ernie MacMillan, Michael Corner, and Seamus Finnigan would stop at nothing to bring down the Carrows (sometimes Neville had to step in as the voice of reason to keep them alive).

But Neville was the glue. He was the one that held everything in place.

He couldn't die.

Not until Harry defeated the Dark Lord.

He wouldn't die.

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 **A/N** : So the next chapter will be the start of the fic, this was just a teaser for a later chapter. Please let me know if you're still interested in me rewriting the fic (it'll be a little darker this time, just as a warning).

Thanks for reading!


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